H.S. football preview: After historic season, Wildwood struggles with numbers

Wildwood senior Jose Valentin tackles Salem’s Dione Alston last season. Valentine played fullback, middle linebacker and even some offensive line last year.

Wildwood football coach Rich Hans says he’s teaching a lot of fundamentals to his players this season.

The Wildwood football team's biggest challenge this season will be approaching the success of last season.

A year removed from a 6-4 season and the Warriors first playoff appearance in school history, Wildwood is battling the rigors of being a small Group I school, as well as replacing one of South Jersey's best running backs.

Last season, senior Wesley Hills rushed for 2,077 yards. Wildwood head coach Rich Hans is attempting to replace that production with junior David Flanders and sophomore Abdiel Richards.

But Hans said it's going to be impossible to replace a player like Hills, The Press Athlete of the Fall who's now at the University of Delaware.

"We'll do a two-back backfield and rotate the two backs," Hans said. "They'll rotate between tailback and fullback."

Wildwood's other challenge this season, and possibly the biggest, will be having enough players to field a team.

Wildwood did some heavy recruiting this offseason to make sure a football season happened this year.

"As a coach, we're going to be starting from the bottom and start with the fundamentals," Hans said. "We're starting them with the fundamentals seven or eight days before our first game. As a coach, it's tough obviously, and as a player there isn't a whole lot of time to get it in."

Teaching fundamentals in football has always been a challenge. It's a complex sport, Hans said.

The challenges aside, Hans said the kids he has are working to absorb as much information as possible and learn the game.

"They're doing the best they can. They're hustling and working hard," Hans said. "There's a lot of technique. I'm getting kids that are starting in ninth grade and 10th grade and 11th grade. So it's hard. It's going to be an uphill battle for sure."